Review of The King (2019) by Daej — 29 Nov 2019

Waste of 2 hours. The entire plot was falsified and historically inaccurate. They painted Henry V as a boy who disliked war and cared for his people. In reality, the real Henry V lusted to wage war, demanded many french lands, and doubled his people’s taxes when parliament denied his request for war.

The entirety of the movie was just slow still shots with zero battle. It was mostly just made up drama filler. There was a brief concluding battle that was also completely inaccurate. The Battle of Agincourt was NOT won by tricking the French cavalry into the mud with light infantry. Henry V’s real army was 80% longbow men, it was won through his archers. Also, it wasn’t the English decision to provoke the battle, they actually were blocked off and cornered into a battle. The real historical account makes a wonderful story, yet the producers decided to completely ignore all of it and film a complete lie.

Even the made-up beginning was a sham. Henry V was NOT a drunk disloyal loser as the movie portrayed. Henry V actually commanded the army with his father Henry VI (then shown as dying in the movie) against the revolting Percys. The real Henry V actually fought in that battle at age 16 and survived an arrow to the head. The movie mentioned a lot about Henry V’s brother Thomas being the true heir and dying at the battle. NOT true - thomas actually did not fight the battle and instead fought for Henry V years later in France where he was killed.

Why base an entire 2 hr+ movie around a King’s biography and yet completely falsify all the historical facts. The directors clearly have no aptitude for history and were in it just for laughs and $$.